How long have you been fishing?

[Raul]

I started at 9 years old, now I 'm 46 ---> 37 years. Bass fishing ---> 30

[Owasco]

I'm 34 Years old. I have been fishing all my life with a "brief" vacation from about age 16-just recently. I grew up as a youngster on Owasco Lake.

Some of my fondest memories are of my father and I fishing the Owasco Outlet Friday and Saturday nights. Seemed like every weekend from the time I could walk and flick my wrist. We'd sit on the shore behind an old mom & pop gas station and catch bullheads, shiners and bass till the wee hours of the morning. A few other people would come and go as the years went on. We would run into them periodically at the shore and my father would chat with them. I would try to listen in and pick up some tips and what not but most of the time I was too caught up in casting or reeling or catching the next sunny or shiner. Most of the fellow fisher-people (and I say people because one of the most productive that I recall was a woman) would give me lures and hooks...sometimes even reels or rods. That is primarily how I built most of my early tackle.

Wow it has been a long time since I've been to the outlet.

I wonder what those people are up to today. I wonder if they are still alive. I wonder if they are still fishing. I wonder if they are still fishing the outlet.

Basser223, I'm really glad you raised this question because it really has helped me to pull these images out of memory and repaint them in my mind's eye as vividly as ever.

Thank you.

[detroit1]

Fishing since 1963 (@6 yrs. old) and bass fishing since 1969. I still get geeked on my way to a lake.

[flippin and pitchin]

Caught my first fish when I was 6 and i'm 56 so,  half a century.  Spent many a summer in central Oregon fishing for troutskies.  Caught my first bass in a borrow pit at age 10 or so.  Got away from it during the motocross years but saw the light after a broken back and came back to fishing and haven't turned back. Bass fishing is my mental health therapy.  This forum is just a group session.

[Whets Lines]

I can't really recall what age I was when I first started fishing. I know it had to be when I was 8 or 9. I grew up in a small town in Illinois named after the muddy river skirting the north end of the village. My uncle would take me camping with him and his friends down by the river. He'd get up early to check his lines and I'd stay behind with a great family friend named Betty. She was a homely woman with leather-tanned skin, a grandmotherly toothless grin, and wrinkles on wrinkles. I would spend the hazy morning hours with her. She'd fill a thermos lid with some heavily sweetened coffee and go about teaching me the patience of bank fishing on a dingy river. We'd always fish below a broken old dam. Long after my youthful patience waned, she'd still be there, sitting in her lawn chair, holding her old fiberglass rod with line between her fingers. She'd catch a lot of carp and catfish. I spent a lot of time casting. Those were the good ol' days. She's long since passed, but her lessons still ring in my fishing consciousness.

I'm 38 now and only enjoying my 2nd season of bass fishing. It is great to be an adult and still having that feeling of discovering something this great for the first time. I'll occasionally do some walleye fishing in a local river, but my heart lies with the wily largemouth. So, since I've been fishing since I can remember, I've just recently discovered the lure of bass fishing (pun intended). If you are reading this, you know what I mean.

Whets

8-)

[CAdeltaLipRipper]

well i really got into fishing right when i got back from Nam...

Hahahaha Ive been into just any fishing since i was 3 or 4, but i didnt start becoming a bassaholic till i was 10 8-)

[garland7]

I'm 51, so been fishing about 46 -47 years

[tennsopher]

I started fishing regularly at the age of 11 in 1967.My dad and I lived on the Emory river in Tennessee.He died a year later and I still cherish the memories of our fishing together.Here I am 43 years later. Im still chasing those ol green fish, and am thankful to all those in Kentucky,Tennessee,and now Florida;that have taught so much and shared great times.May GOD bless them all.

[Missouribassman95]

Alittle over a year. My dad first taught me to fish for trout, then we moved to Oklahoma and I fished with worms for catfish. After we moved to Missouri, I became a big crappie fisherman, but last summer is when I really started to love bass fishing.

[D4u2s0t]

I've been fishing pretty much my whole life, but it has become more than just throwing in a line and hoping for the best as about 5 years ago.

[Catt]

55 yrs 

[Matt Fly]

Over 40+ years.

[Dwight Hottle]

50 plus years.

[Long Mike]

Since the world was dirt.

What about Long Mike then? I heard he predates dirt...

I invented dirt.  Been fishing since I was old enough to hold a cane pole.  College and a career got in the way for more years than I want to count, but I fished whenever I could get away.  Now that I am semi-retired I've taken up bass fishing in earnest.  Been doing it for about four years now.  I'm 64, so I suppose that I've been fishing, on and off, for about 60 years.

[Blue Streak]

I am going to say 62 years, give or take a year.

[Long Mike]

Attaboy Blue Streak!  Old Farts rule!

[Nibbles]

I started when I was 7, and I turn 20 tomorrow, so I'd have to say 12 years give or take 6 months.

Fishing's pretty much in my blood though - my grandfather on my mother's side grew up in a coastal fishing village near Qingdao, China. Apparently, I look a lot like him, and despite only having lived with him for a couple of months, my mannerisms are almost identical to his. According to my mom, I have all the quirks that he has, and even talk and gesture like him. Freaky huh? 

[NBR]

Looks like Blue Streak, Long Mike and I are the old timers. I've been at it 65 years.

[Blue Streak]

Looks like Blue Streak, Long Mike and I are the old timers. I've been at it 65 years.

I haven't put a rocking chair in the bass boat yet, but I am thinking about it. Beats sitting on a park bench I guess.

[Dwight Hottle]

I answered 50+ years. Started with a cane pole as well around the age of 8. Old farts do rule!

[dablaw1]

Well let's see..I'm 43 now so probably 35+ years..In my 20's I fished Red Man (now FLW), because it's local right up the road in Benton,Ky. I fished most of the local tournaments and did ok I guess..Life sort of got in the way and have really only started back bass fishing last few years..At 43 I'm at a weird spot in my life where I would like to go "all in" in the next few years and see what I can do...I know Ky Lake really well and can usually find some fish..Going out in about an hour today..I'm going to give myself 2 years to see if I can still find quality fish on a regular basis on Ky Lake, with differnet conditions and different times of the year..If I can keep consistently catching 5 fish that weigh 20 pounds (4 lb average) then I will probably consider gearing up again with another big boat and maybe some of the more high tech gear available..Don't need to sink a fortune to catch fish though..I still have a old super sixty that I use to locate a drop, and an old humminbird on the TM just top keep me in the right water..I wonder how many kids even know what a super sixty is..lol..I have been fishing the same drops that I fished in the 80's and still catching good fish after all these years..Kinda nice to do that..I'm pretty versatile though..The other day me a one of my boys were catching some 3-4 lb largemouth on a drop and started catching some good stripes..Well couldn't let them suckers just swim around down there...so we ended up catching a nice limit of solid 1.5-2 lb stripers..Darn those things fight like a shark...So anyway that's in in a nutshell...Whether or not I decide to fish tournaments or not is not a big deal and I'll be happy just catching fish either way..And I'd rather give myself a few years and just quietly poke around to see what I'm capable of doing instead of doing like a lot of kids do know days and put the cart before the horse...Well gotta go..Time to hit the deep water..

[bigbill]

My older brother took me fishing in the rain and i can remember it as if it was yesterday. I was 6yo then and i'm almost 60yo now. (retired since '02) Life isn't over as we retire its just another chapter in our lives. Now i have more free time to fish, to hunt and look at swimwear at the beach. Hey who has it better than us being retired????

So don't work until you die, retire early its not the end. There are so many things left to enjoy out there.

If your young save for retirement NOW!!!!!!!!! I started stocking up on bass fishing stuff many years before i retired. My point is plan ahead and start saving today for the future, your future can be awesome its your choice..... 8-)

My health isn't that great but i try to fish everyday and sometimes thats only 1 hour but i enjoy it just the same. I have good days and bad days but i still push it to get out there and fish. On my last day i'll still be fishing..... :  I may get new knees like the 6 million dollar man soon then i'm good to go again.

[Triton21]

I have been fishing so long if the old adage "Time fishing doesn't count toward your life span" I will live over a 1000 years. 65+ years.

Kelley

[D.R.BassSeeker]

:DAt least 53 years, I remember the first fish I caught when I was 3 years old. I kept flipping it in and out of the water, back over my head and back into the water. It was a bream about 3 inches long and I bugged my grandfather until he cleaned it for me then my grandmother fried it for me. Can't remember if it tasted good or not, but I sure did enjoy it. I still love to eat fish and could eat them everyday, but I don't.

[Who Dat?]

For 70 yrs.

Started fishing from the seawall of Lake Pontchartrain with my Dad for specs, crabs and shrimp.

Fished the lagoons of City Park for bluegill and bass.

All done within the city limits of New Orleans.

Those were the good old days.